The Entrepreneur

He was young in years when my brother, Kenneth, became aware of the need to succeed in life.  Coming from a modest background, to be successful became the driving force in his life.  This determination was well rewarded and he became the President and part owner of a large company.  He started out driving a truck for Liquid Air delivering bottles of oxygen to hospitals and other institutions and then working briefly at a car dealership in Edmonton. Next, he became a travelling salesman for Scott National Foods and criss-crossed The Province of Saskatchewan on a regular basis.

One of his first attempts at salesmanship was in his early teens.  It arose out of necessity as he and a buddy of his wanted badly to go to the movies.  They had no money and since they were not supposed to be going to a movie, they could not ask their parents for money for the tickets.

His friend, Wilbert asked, "Where are we going to get the money?  You know that we can't sneak in because, if we'd get caught, we'd be in big trouble with our parents."

"Give me a minute," Kenneth replied, "I'll think of a plan."

Kenneth went back into his house and came out again with a big bulge showing in the front of his jacket.  He looked behind and said, "Let's go before my Mom sees us."

"What's under your jacket?"

"My brown Sunday suit," Kenneth grinned, "we'll go to a second-hand shop and sell it.  Then we will have money for the movie and maybe more."

"You are going to sell your only suit!   What will you tell your Mom when she finds out?"

"I'll worry about that later but let's see if we can sell it first.  We'd better hurry if we want to catch the movie."

Off the boys went but they did not meet with success.  They tried four second-hand stores and the response was always the same.

"Sorry boys!  There is no market for this sort of garment.  Don't you know that every boy in Edmonton has a brown Sunday suit," a shop-keeper reminded them, "they ask you what shade of brown you want when you buy it.  Brown seems to be the only color for boys your age to wear."

The boys were disappointed and now Kenneth had to find a way of sneaking his brown suit back into the house without his mother catching him.  Apparently he succeeded.

On another occasion, having both turned sixteen, Kenneth and Wilbert went out looking for their first real job.  They went to the personnel department of Woodward's, one of the biggest and most popular department stores in downtown Edmonton to fill out application forms.  On the streetcar on their way home, Wilbert asked Kenneth, "What did you put down where it asked, 'Position Applied For'?"

"President," Kenneth replied, nonchalantly!

A few days later another friend brought up the subject of Kenneth's job application.  "Did you hear from Woodward's yet telling you that you've got the job?"

Kenneth replied confidently, "Not yet . . . but I'm expecting to hear from them any day now!"

Kenneth Kirsch and his family